Modified chitosan-fabricated antifungal transdermal array for dermatophytosis therapy

Area of Science:

• Mycology
• Dermatology
• Biomaterials Science

Background:

• Dermatophytosis is a common fungal skin infection with limited treatment efficacy due to poor drug penetration and biofilm formation.
• Conventional antifungal therapies struggle with skin permeability and penetrating fungal biofilms, leading to suboptimal clinical results.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel dissolvable microneedle (MN) patch for enhanced dermatophytosis treatment.
• To investigate the synergistic effect of terbinafine (TB) and quaternary ammonium chitosan (QCS) in microneedle delivery.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of TB/QCS MNs encapsulating terbinafine within quaternary ammonium chitosan microneedle tips.
• In vitro assessment of TB/QCS MNs against Trichophyton mentagrophytes biofilms.
• In vivo evaluation of TB/QCS MNs in a murine model of T. mentagrophytes infection.

Main Results:

• TB/QCS MNs demonstrated a significant synergistic antifungal effect against T. mentagrophytes.
• The MNs effectively disrupted fungal biofilms and extracellular polymeric substances.
• TB/QCS MNs accelerated fungal clearance, reduced treatment duration, and improved skin recovery in infected mice compared to TB alone.

Conclusions:

• TB/QCS MNs represent a promising advancement in dermatophytosis therapy by overcoming limitations of conventional treatments.
• This novel microneedle patch technology offers enhanced therapeutic efficacy for skin fungal infections.